Congress, local authorities investigate Abound Solar

One source specifically said it was DOE metrics that caused Abound to keep producing and selling bad products.

“In my opinion Abound and the DOE put so much effort into meeting the metrics they paid no attention to the lack of quality,” echoed another source.

Abound may have also committed fraud in order to obtain a bridge loan to keep themselves afloat in the weeks leading up to closing the Energy Department loan guarantee by using fake accounts receivable as collateral for the loan.

“We collateralized the loan with fake [accounts receivable] (the customer had canceled the order so the revenue should have be reversed but we kept it on the books for the banks benefits),” wrote one source in an email to the DC News Foundation.

“In my professional opinion I think that was fraud because there was no accounts receivable, it was a cancelled sale,” that same source later told TheDC News Foundation in an interview.

“These are solar panels we are now seeing reports that said they worked as long as you didn’t put them in the sun,” said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. “Now the question is did the (Department of Energy) — did they know something that the rest of should have known? Did Abound not tell the DOE something? These are questions that need to be answered.”

Gardner told 1310 KFKA’s Amy Oliver he expects the DOE to respond to his letter soon — within the next ten days.

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